Bougainvillea: a joyful family weakness

  Bougainvillea is, apparently, a family weakness. I was talking to my parents the other day, and it came up that they are 'disputing' the respective values of the tangerine and bougainvillea trees that are beside each other in their yard. The (perfect) shaping of the two seems mutually exclusive. Being shown the competing plants from a distance, I had to agree that the bougainvillea did seem to have the better claim to more space. (Of course, my opinion did nothing to sway the tangerine supporter.)

   Last year, my first bougainvillea gave great beauty and joy as it flourished, as depicted below.

As you can see in the next picture, this winter was not particularly kind to it. I have not been able to revive it to its normal vivacity, even though it is not without color or bloom. Even this picture has a certain pleasing symmetry, doesn't it? 

This next bougainvillea is much smaller (same one as the first picture) and was a gift on my last birthday. It is a really lovely, bright red. I don't recall ever seeing one in quite this shade. It is thriving, as the next 3 pictures show.

 

My final bougainvillea spent the winter outside because it is in a large, unmovable pot. Although it was a mild winter, a late cold snap almost doomed this one. It is finally putting out new leaves and promises to shed a different sort of beauty this summer than previously.

You can also see the ivy in the foreground here, as well as vaguely others in the background - wandering jews and a hardy, frequently-blossoming plant whose name I don't know. From a different perspective, you can see the other plants that share this final bougainvillea's pot... a spider plant and a little ground-cover plant that produces blue flowers.

Other plants (ferns, an avocado, aloe plants, long grass, and more) are sprinkled around the terrace, but these are the ones that are thriving at the moment.

exploring new book-worlds

 As we continue through this unusual time of being at home, I have found myself with unusual mental space for new reading material. When my mind is cluttered by what is going on around or within me, I typically resort to re-reading books I have read with value or enjoyment before. This provides something of an escape and a space for considering daily goings-on from a different perspective.
 These days, however, while I do not necessarily have a lot more time for reading, I have found myself with a less cluttered mind. Thus, I can more easily read from new sources. Today I started David deSilva's book Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture. It's been on my wishlist for 2-3 years, but it went on a significant sale, so I decided to sample it (on my Kindle). The sample led me to buy it. There's a lot to consider in it. Some of you may have noted my interest in honor-shame dynamics within both Scripture and culture over the last several years.

   I'm about 10% of the way through the book, and, so far, deSilva has done a good job describing the ancient world and then showing the connections to both the Scriptures and the practical daily contexts of their world and ours. I will include just one quote since most of the other parts that I have appreciated need more context to be meaningful. See if you can hear the resonance with Paul urging the Roman believers to 'outdo one another in showing honor' (see post "The Honor Competition.") 

Hence Isocrates advises his student to “consider it equally disgraceful to be outdone by your enemies in doing injury and to be surpassed by your friends in doing kindness” (Ad Dem. 26), that is, to take pains to win when presented either with negative or positive challenges, so that his honor will remain undiminished.

deSilva, David A.. Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity (p. 31). IVP Academic.

 Anyways, that's one example of some of my new reading. Since the beginning of the year, I've also been reading P. G. Wodehouse's books and short stories that are available free on Kindle. A friend has been recommending them for years, and I finally decided to try them. They've been fun and relaxing, and very different from anything else I read. 

 I'm also borrowing Pearl Buck's The Good Earth from the library currently. We'll see whether or not I can read it before it disappears from my Kindle. If not, it'll have to wait a bit longer, especially if my mind becomes cluttered with other things for any reason...